I get the feeling there’s a wary sense of unease at the Iowa Department of Economic Development.   

I haven’t been by to visit in several weeks, so it’s speculation. Maybe I am just projecting how it would feel to work at a business that is enduring its second year of cutbacks, is leaking employees and has just had its leader cut down.

I’ve never met C.J. Niles, but I wish her well. Niles was one of the six state agency heads Gov. Thomas Vilsack fired on the day before Thanksgiving. Niles declined to be interviewed for this article. Through a spokeswoman, she referred questions on to the governor, who ignored me up through deadline last week. Bob Bakken, the department’s chairman of the board, also referred me to the governor.

Bereft of those key sources, I soldiered on to find out what happened at IDED and what some thing ought to happen in the future.

First, Niles had some challenges. She didn’t have the same breadth of experience as her predecessor, David Lyons.

Prior to accepting the job, Niles ran the chamber of commerce in Carroll. Lyons, who is now business development director at the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, had served as Iowa’s insurance commissioner before arriving at the department.

Next, the department was almost wholly Lyons’ creation, according to Eric Woolsen, who was Doug Gross’ chief of staff during the recent gubernatorial campaign. That would present a challenge to any incoming leader, and combined with her lack of experience could have created another conflict. After all, what happens when soldiers know the business better than the commanding officer?

Other problems were beyond Niles’ control. Vilsack, who is apparently deciding now how to “redesign the department,” according to spokesman Ron Parker, hasn’t yet attached as much importance to economic development as former Gov. Terry Branstad did, Wilson said.

And Vilsack has cut the department’s budget roughly 25 percent in the past year. Talented staffers have been drifting away, Wilson said.

“People over there are saying, ‘We’re not the favored agency of the governor and we’ve got a director who doesn’t know the ropes,’” he said. “That’s going to cause a lot of dissent. Then you’ve got the governor firing people.”

Some, including Iowa Association of Business and Industry head Jim Aipperspach, have said the IDED under Niles wasn’t as effective as it could have been.  

That could be one of the reasons metropolitan economic development organizations, such as the Greater Des Moines Partnership, have been growing in power and influence, Aipperspach said.

  Those groups are also growing, no doubt, because the businesses and individuals that fund them realize it’s good to have an effective group sticking up for you in a way that state agencies can’t.  

Aipperspach said the IDED must be streamlined in a way that allows the department’s head the freedom to roam far and wide promoting Iowa. Future directors can’t be bogged down by the bureaucracy it takes to manage its 130 workers, he said. Next, the director’s salary, which is currently slightly north of $100,000, has to be raised to whatever the market pays.  

“Highly competent people are highly paid,” Aipperspach said. “People aren’t going to do this job just because they love Iowa.”  

From a political standpoint, it’s very interesting to me why a governor who won re-election by a pretty comfortable margin would take such drastic actions. Iowans maintained the status quo. There’s no mandate for change.  

Six agency heads? Why did Vilsack feel such pressure that he had to make the announcements without having replacements lined up? And to make the announcement in the late afternoon the day before Thanksgiving?   

The governor defended himself at the time, saying he had made himself available by holding a live press conference and that the long weekend would give Niles and the others a chance to consider their futures.  

That’s weak reasoning – or it’s clever for the wrong reasons.   

Too often politicians and other folks with negative news to announce do it on Friday night because they know few people will notice. By Monday, the issue has crusted over and the politician can claim a desire to move on. In this case, Vilsack’s announcement had four days to cool.  

Des Moines Business Record staff writer Michael Lovell writes a weekly column on business issues affecting Greater Des Moines. He appears on Sunday mornings to talk about business trends on WHO-TV. Contact him at 288-3336 or by e-mail at michaellovell@bpcdm.com.